


The Open Road of the Unknown

by onnari



Category: Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Post-Canon, Road Trips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-04-30
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:02:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23930497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onnari/pseuds/onnari
Summary: “So… I guess I’ll drive,” Tifa decides, making for the front and Barret, of course, will only settle for shotgun, a seat he probably takes more literally than figuratively.“I’ll make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid,” Cloud says, slipping into the middle, a tight squeeze the three of them across. But if Cloud is pressed a little closer than need be, Tifa doesn’t complain. Secretly likes it, even when Barret can’t stay still to save his life, crowding them further.When Aerith leans over from the back seat, her chin hovering over Tifa’s shoulder, Tifa thinks maybe she should be feeling a little claustrophobic, but it’s the opposite, really. She’s exactly where she wants to be.
Relationships: Aerith Gainsborough/Tifa Lockhart, Tifa Lockhart/Cloud Strife
Comments: 29
Kudos: 132





	The Open Road of the Unknown

**Author's Note:**

> You know how sometimes you get the name for a fic first (the part you struggle with the most)? And then you open up a doc to jot that down and the first inkling of an idea because you don’t want to lose them? But then actual lines and dialogue just start flowing and then you’re up in the middle of the night writing out most of a fic entirely on your phone? Yeah, this is that fic.
> 
> So, something fun because damned if we don't deserve it.

Somehow the open road proves their greatest challenge yet.

“So which way are we going exactly?” Tifa eventually asks and they all pause in their walking to stare at each other then at Aerith, a hint of despondency creeping into her face.

“Let’s see if we can find some kind of transport first,” Cloud quickly decides and a scheme is formed. Only it all goes to hell when the first Shinra vehicle does come by and Barret chooses to run out instead, gun blazing in a shower of bullets that blows a rear tire and has the van careening dangerously across the road.

“That wasn’t the plan,” Cloud says as they run in to take care of its occupants.

Barret drags the last unconscious grunt out, promptly throwing him off the side of the road. “It worked, didn’t it?”

"Is he always like this?" Aerith asks in an aside to Tifa and Barret lifts his arms.

"You have a problem with taking care of things in style?"

“I hardly think traveling around in a Shinra vehicle full of bullet holes is going to help our cause,” Red XIII wryly observes.

“Let’s just take care of changing out the tire first,” Tifa placates and Aerith sends her one of her best smiles, working in tandem with her to roll out and maneuver the replacement as Cloud and Barret lift the van up.

Wheel secured, they look between themselves again.

"Let’s get this show on the road,” Aerith proclaims with a raised fist and Barret lets out a whoop, his hand already on the door to the driver’s seat.

“No!” they all shout and Barret pivots, his face pinched in irritation. Then hones his gaze on Red XIII. “Really? Could you even drive this thing yourself?"

Red XIII eyes him. "What do you think, was this vehicle designed with my kind in mind?”

Barret throws an arm up. "Was a simple question that only needed a simple answer."

“So… I guess I’ll drive,” Tifa decides, making for the front and Barret, of course, will only settle for shotgun, a seat he probably takes more literally than figuratively.

“I’ll make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid,” Cloud says, slipping into the middle, a tight squeeze the three of them across. But if Cloud is pressed a little closer than need be, Tifa doesn’t complain. Secretly likes it, even when Barret can’t stay still to save his life, crowding them further.

When Aerith leans over from the back seat, her chin hovering over Tifa’s shoulder, Tifa thinks maybe she should be feeling a little claustrophobic, but it’s the opposite, really. She’s exactly where she wants to be.

More than a couple highway turn-offs later on, Cloud looks up from the map he’s pulled out from the seat compartment, frowning at it as he hazardously—concerningly—turns it a full 360 degrees.

"Give me that," Barret says, almost tearing it to pieces as he snatches it away. "You're getting us lost."

"Technically there is no getting lost if you have no real destination in mind," Red XIII dryly comments and Tifa almost startles, thinking he'd maybe fallen asleep after being quiet so long.

She plays it off by cracking her neck instead, flexing her hands against the steering wheel.

"Tifa," Cloud immediately says.

And because he rarely presses, just gives her the opportunity for a check-in, she admits, "Just getting a little stiff. I might need a quick stretch break if that's ok."

“Sure thing,” Aerith says but she instantly has her hands on the back of Tifa’s neck, massaging the muscle there, and Tifa thinks she must sense her pulse kicking up. But then again, maybe that’s why she’s doing it.

"Up there," Cloud nods and Tifa happily pulls over where he directs. By the time she's got a few stretches in, loosening up her body with kicks and punches to Aerith's vocal admiration, she sees that Cloud has slid over, now settled in the driver’s seat.

Tifa worries if he's suited for a clunker of a van like this, if he’ll push too hard on the accelerator, but if anything he's too conscious of the limitations of the vehicle and the ordinances that will assure their safety, provided no one is chasing them down for once. But damned if he doesn’t look like a dead man behind the wheel.

Barret is also clearly restless. "What is this pace?” he complains. “No way are we keeping this up. I'm taking over."

"No," everyone else immediately says again.

"I'd really rather preserve my life, now that I've finally gotten it back," Red XIII adds and Tifa has to spend the next two minutes settling Barret back in his seat.

Aerith reaches over from the back again to fiddle with the radio, but even her sudden, jarring channel switches aren't enough to keep Cloud from getting progressively bored and listless.

So Aerith insists on taking a turn herself, poking at him until he pulls over. She hops up in the driver’s seat, makes a careful show of adjusting both it and the mirrors, but things quickly deteriorate from there, her shoulders raised to her ears, hands disconcertingly close together on the top of the wheel. Back and forth she swerves in the lane, all the while pumping down on the gas.

"Aerith..." Tifa says. "How about I take over again?"

Aerith waves a hand distractedly. "No, I've got this."

“Do you actually have a license?” Red XIII pointedly asks and Aerith’s shoulders somehow go even higher as she shrugs.

“More or less.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s not how that works,” he responds, but she's not listening, rolling down the window to tell a couple passing drivers what she really thinks of them.

Only it's a chocobo stampede that actually does her in—threat undetected to the point she sends then swerving off the road and right into a ditch.  
  
“Fuck!” she says, quite aptly.

Tifa thinks she’s never been closer to death, her life flashing behind her eyes. "Is everyone okay?" she asks as soon as she’s come to but Aerith and Barret are already in their own world, launching a near showdown of inventive and colorful language.

"Well I guess that answers that," Tifa sighs, leaning her head back for a moment until they all clamber out one by one to assess the damage.

"All right, I got this. I can clean this mess right up,” Barret declares, slapping his chest and lining up to push the van back up onto the road.

Aerith shakes her head. "No, all we need is Aero. That'll lift it right out."

Looking like he’s fighting off an actual headache, Red XIII stalks off to leave them to it and Tifa just slides bonelessly to the ground.

Laying in a ditch and looking up at the sky directly, brighter than she knows what to do with, she can't help but start to shake.

"Tifa," Cloud says again from nowhere, coming into her space as he looks her over in concern and really that only makes her shake harder. Finally, her laughter breaks, quiet but overwhelming.

Cloud pulls back with a near pout. "You had me worried for a moment."

"Come here," she says, patting the space beside her in the dirt. Slow, dubious, he does, trusting her enough to indulge her and she has to grin at that.

"So this is what traveling together would have been like if we'd actually gotten out of Nibelheim together."

Cloud lifts his head back up to look over, taking in the scene that Barret and Aerith are still making, trying to one-up each other to no one's benefit, the car only stuck further, if anything.

"Not sure it would have been quite this chaotic."

"Then I'm glad it was like this. I'm not sure if there'd been as much laughter, just on our own."

“I don’t know, you always seem able to hold on to the good in any situation.” She smiles faintly at that, wanting to believe him. Wanting to believe she can stay that way. “But,” he continues, “this is good, right?”

It’s more searching, more a need for confirmation than anything, and she can give him that. Her smile gives the sun a run for its money. “Yeah. It is.”

"Tifa!" Barret hollers and dimly Tifa pieces together that the truck's engine is revving, the driver's door wide open. "You've got five seconds to get your ass back here. Otherwise I’m finally getting behind this wheel, all of you be damned. Especially if it’ll keep Aerith here from getting us all killed for real."

"It was a freak accident, it could have happened to anyone!" Aerith argues, but when she turns to Tifa she looks a little sheepish.

Cloud's already standing, extending his hand down to her and Aerith offers one too.

Grinning, she takes both. Lets them lift her back up.

"Coming," she calls.

**Author's Note:**

> Fun fact: Tifa has two hands.


End file.
